How to Kick Australian

By

James Wagner

Updated Aug. 29, 2008 11:59 p.m. ET

The international influence in American pro sports is finally spreading to the National Football League -- one punter at a time.

Three Australian punters will be starting for NFL teams this season. Ben Graham of the New York Jets and Saverio Rocca of the Philadelphia Eagles both averaged at least 42 yards per punt last season -- which is notable considering that neither player joined the NFL until he was in his 30s. Mat McBriar of the Dallas Cowboys, who was chosen for the 2006 Pro Bowl, led the NFL that season with an average of 48.2 yards per punt.

ENLARGE

Taking a drop: (left to right) Mat McBriar of the Cowboys, Saverio Rocca of the Eagles and Ben Graham of the Jets.
Getty Images (3)

These punters use a distinctive kicking method borrowed from their days in Australian-rules football -- the drop punt. The technique, which sends the ball spinning end over end instead of in a traditional spiral, typically allows punters to pinpoint their kicks to within five yards. It can also result in fewer odd bounces, including that ultimate punter faux pas -- a ball that bounces into the end zone for a touchback.

Currently as many as 10 NFL punters are using some version of it, and scouts and team executives say they're more interested than ever in signing players from Australia. Last year a pair of Australians started an instructional camp to help Australian football players make the transition to the NFL. John Dorsey, director of college scouting for the Green Bay Packers, says the focus in America has always been on finding the men with the strongest legs. The Australians, he says, have elevated punting "to an art form."

In Australian-rules football, a distant cousin of rugby, the "footy" is rounder and slightly heavier than the American football, and players often advance it up the field by kicking it rather than throwing or carrying it. As a result, players there learn several varieties of kicks, from a spiralling "torpedo" kick to a curving type called a "banana."

But the drop punt is the most common of the lot and the one that has produced the best results in the States.

The NFL first started to consider foreign kickers in 1964, the year Hungarian-born Cornell graduate Pete Gogolak kicked the first soccer-style place kick for the Buffalo Bills.

By the late 1970s, foreign-born placekickers were the norm in the NFL, and the soccer-style technique, which involves kicking the ball with the instep instead of the toes, became the U.S. standard. With few exceptions, however, punting remained the province of Americans.

That began to change in 1993, when the San Diego Chargers gave Australian Darren Bennett a tryout. The 29-year-old, who had already played Aussie-rules football for 12 grueling years, not only made the team but also spent 11 years in the NFL and played in two Pro Bowls.

Mr. Bennett also became the NFL's leading evangelist for the drop punt. In May 1999, he helped host a youth football camp in San Diego with several NFL kickers, including Hunter Smith, a recent draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts. Mr. Smith says he was impressed with the Australian's ability to pinpoint his punts, and spent the next three years mastering the technique. Mr. Smith credits it with transforming him from a liability in situations where precision is called for to a "more reliable" punter. He was comfortable enough to use the technique during the Colts' 2007 Super Bowl win.

Mr. Bennett says he's since taught the drop punt to Pro-Bowl alternate Mike Scifres of the San Diego Chargers. Shane Lechler of the Oakland Raiders, one of the league's best punters, and other players, including Daniel Sepulveda of the Pittsburgh Steelers, have learned the technique by watching films.

On a recent day at the Jets' training facility in Hempstead, N.Y., Ben Graham launched a couple of drop punts high into the air. Each time, he dropped the ball onto his foot at a nearly 45-degree angle and hit it almost on the nose with his toes. (A traditional spiral kicker hits the "meat" of the ball with the top of his foot.)

If executed correctly, drop punts will bounce forward or backward after hitting the ground -- unlike a spiral, whose trajectory on the ground is impossible to predict. Knowing how the ball will behave makes it easier for the kicking team to down the ball -- especially when the punt lands close to the opponent's end zone. Mr. Bennett says that because spiral punts are so unpredictable, they run the risk of making the punt-coverage team "look stupid in front of 70,000 people."

The 34-year-old Mr. Graham, who played 12 years in the Australian Football League for the Geelong Cats, was signed in 2005 by Jets head coach Eric Mangini, who had spent time in Australia during college. Mr. Graham became the starting punter the same year.

Mr. Rocca, another former AFL player, says he spent six weeks and $100,000 of his own money last year to fly himself and his family to and from the U.S. to attend training camps and tryouts. He finally landed a job with the Eagles. Mr. McBriar, 29, who had some amateur Aussie-rules experience, punted for the University of Hawaii before being signed by the Cowboys.

The transition to American football is not always smooth. During a preseason game last August against Baltimore, Mr. Rocca boomed a 65-yard punt out of his own end-zone and began trotting down the field, admiring the flight of the ball. He was blindsided by Ravens linebacker Antwan Barnes, who sent him -- and his helmet -- flying.

While the TV announcers expressed concern, Mr. Rocca could be seen on the sidelines following the play, sporting a broad grin. "We've got hits like that back in Australia," he said later. "It happens all the time."

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